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local Friday 20 January 2023

History of Carnival in Aruba

(VisitAruba.com) – Each year in the many social clubs would have
January and February, Aruba cel- parties with costumes. These par-
ebrates another edition of its popu- ties would take place at the ven-
lar and impressive Carnival season. ues of the social clubs and were
The incredible atmosphere and primarily elite balls with European
cultural diversity during carnival is style, like debutant balls and cos-
definitely something that you need tume parties to celebrate the fes-
to experience. Carnival has its ori- tivities of the season. After some
gins in the 1920s, and it evolved years, the Americans in San Nico-
through different cultural influenc- las who were working at the Lago
es to arrive to what we know and Refinery introduced their own cele-
love today. brations for the season, with Ameri-
can style. These seasonal festivities
1921-1945 were mainly centered around Hal-
The first signs of Carnival celebra- loween, Christmas and Carnival,
tions began in 1921, when some of and became the first step on the
road to the carnival celebrations Queen election on the island, and the 11th month, known as Fools
that we know today. the first parades were organized Day. The Committee was the main
by Aruba’s oldest social club, Tivoli. organizer of the Carnival festivities,
1945-1954 however, it was not the only one: In
During these years, the Lago Re- 1954-1965 1981, Tivoli Social Club established
finery began reaching its employ- The third era of Aruba’s carnival the Lighting Parade.
ment peak, with most of the recruit- began when the native Aruban
ing done in the English-speaking and English groups joined to plan Nowadays, Aruba’s Carnival has
islands in the Caribbean, namely the first public carnival for the en- grown to become one of the big-
Trinidad, Jamaica and British Guy- tire island, under a (temporary) gest in the Caribbean, with an en-
ana. These English-speaking mi- Central Carnival Committee. With tire month of parades and activi-
grants were the first to organize a Club Tivoli as a host, the represen- ties.
parade in San Nicolas for the allied tatives of various social clubs held
victory in World War II. It was these a meeting to coordinate their ef- For more information, visit https://
immigrants who enriched Aruba’s forts for a single, unique Carnival www.visitaruba.com/things-to-do/
Trinidadian-style Carnival. parade in Oranjestad, combining carnival/arubas-carnival-history/
steelband, floats and musicians in To see more photographs of the
Meanwhile, the carnival celebra- costumes and masks. The Carnival history of Aruba’s carnival, visit
tions of Carnival at the social clubs Committee organized the first Car- the archives of the National Li-
were becoming bigger and big- nival Queen election. brary of Aruba https://archive.org/
ger. Every club had a Carnival search?query=carnaval+arubaq
In 1957, the tradition of having
two big parades began; the first in
San Nicolas and the second in the
capital of Oranjestad. After eight
years, Calypso and Roadmarch
became an integral part of the
Carnival season with the introduc-
tion of Calypso contests.

1966-present
The first year of this era was known
for the establishment of SAC – The
Aruban Carnival Foundation. This
committee was founded at ex-
actly 11:11am on the 11th day of